Conventionally, in a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device, there has been known a process of performing an electrical inspection by bringing a probe into contact with an electrode of a target object to be inspected such as a semiconductor device or the like which is formed in a semiconductor wafer. In such inspection, if the electrode making contact with the probe is made of an easily oxidizable material such as aluminum, copper, solder or the like, an insulating film such as an oxide film or the like is formed on a surface of the electrode during the inspection step. As a result, when bringing the probe into contact with the electrode, an electrical resistance therebetween becomes large so that a good electrical contact condition is not obtained. For this reason, it has been known that the electrical resistance can be reduced by breaking through the insulating film by raising a contact load (a probe pressure) applied to the electrode from the probe to be, for example, about 3 g or more.
However, in the above-described method, there are problems of causing a damage to a base of the electrode, or the like. For this reason, there has been proposed an inspection method for obtaining a good electrical contact state with a lower probe pressure by using a fritting phenomenon (for example, see Patent Document 1).
In the inspection method employing the fritting phenomenon, two probes are brought into contact with one electrode. In addition, by applying a voltage between these probes, the fritting phenomenon is incurred to thereby electrically break down the insulating film so that a good electrical contact is obtained. However, in such inspection method, since the probe pressure is low, a leading end of the probe may slide on the electrode so that the fritting is carried out without obtaining a sufficient electrical contact. Thus, it is proved that there occurs a case in which an electrical contact state required for the inspection can not be obtained even by the fritting. Accordingly, even in such inspection method, the inspection needs to be performed more accurately and reliably by obtaining a good electrical contact state more securely.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2002-139542